Motion Picture Herald (Jul-Sep 1956)

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Hollywood Erupts in Geyser of Production Activity: 57 in Work . . . Seen a boon to exhibition as recent trend is reversed and for second successive week studios are sparked into high gear HOLLYWOOD BUREAU “Hang on, you product-starved exhibitors— help is on the way.” That could have been Hollywood’s wordof-the-week to the nation’s showmen, if Hollywood had a voice, and a unified motive in spurting ahead, for the second seven-day stretch in succession, in a production rush that sharply contradicts recent trend and expert prediction. 45 Previous Week The production branch of the business put 14 new properties in camera range during the week, completing shooting on two others the while, lifting the over-all total to a fat 57 at the weekend. It’s been years and years since that many pictures were facing ASCinematographers at the same time, although the count had risen to a fine 45 the preceding week on the starting of 10 features. Nobody around Hollywood appears to have a simple, straight answer for the fortnight’s production splurge. There is no factor of calendar importance to corporate structures to explain the abrupt unturn. There is no unanimity as to kind or size or quality of picture to be discovered in an inspection of the new undertakings collectively. Maybe the most satisfactory explanation of the sudden and widespread activity is, in the most ordinary and altogether agreeable way, the influx of favorable news from box offices around the country. (It was favorable news from that quarter, it must be remembered, that kept the shooting level in the 50-to-60 slot back in the magnificent mid-40s, and when that news flagged and faded, so did production.) Varied in Type Whatever the reason for the upturn, the 14 newcomers to the shooting stages are of almost that many kinds, sources, shapes and colorations, and are destined to reach theatre screens via seven different distributing companies, not counting possible independent or roadshow channels. The new ventures are as follows: “I Married a Woman” is the second George Gobel picture, this one for RKO distribution, and in it the diminutive comedian has among his cast associates the great Julius Tannen, regarded by many PRODUCTION RATE COULD SET RECORD HOLLYWOOD: Placing 24 feature pictures in production within a fortnight, the producing branch of the industry has provided strong evidence that the industry's future is not inescapably limited by its past. Year'round maintenance of this production rate would yield an annual total of 624 pictures, more than doubling the 1955 output of American companies and surpassing even 1937's lush 608, the top mark of modern times. That may be too much to expect. But considerably less than that many pictures would be enough to put an end to the product shortage, xpand greatly the paying theatregoer's range of choice, and— who can tell?— might usher several millions of persons back into the theatre and conceivably into the theatre-going habit. W.R.W. Gobel admirers as the actor who, appearing in the first or second Gobel telecast, started the young man off on his swift ascent to Fame, and, finally, films. Others in the cast are the imported Diana Dors, rich in publicity and photogenic pulchritude; Adolphe Menjou, Jessie Royce Landis and Nita Talbot. Hal Kante*-, who make the Gobel telecasts the silver lining of a Saturday night at home, is directing the picture. William Bloom is producer. Business as Usual Republic, still optioned to some Beverly Hills capitalists for purchase on or before September 4 started shooting “Accused of Murder” quite as if business were going on as usual which indeed it is. The picture is being made in Trucolor and Naturama and it has Vera Ralston, David Brian, Sidney Blackmer, Virginia Grey, Lee Van Cleef and Barry Kelley in the cast. Joseph Kane is associate producer-director. Producer Mo/rton Fine and director David Friedkin went to work on “Capital Offense,” which MGM will distribute, with Leslie Neilsen, Colleen Miller, Edward Andrews, Jay C. Flippen, Paul Richards and Barbara Lang among the players. Joel Freeman is assistant director. “The Jim Piersall Story,” for Paramount release, got under way with a cast including Anthony Perkins, Karl Malden, Norma Moore, Perry Wilson and Adam Williams. Alan Pakula is producing; Robert Mulligan is directing. Universal-International’s Robert Arthur launched “The Eyes of Father Tomasino,” in CinemaScope, with Joseph Pevney directing Tony Curtis, Marisa Pavan and Gilbert Roland. The same studio’s Edmund Chevie began filming “Crazy Love,” in which Sal Mineo, from TV, John Saxon, Luanna Patten and Fay Wray are principals. Richard Bartlett is directing. Security Pictures, producing for United Artists release, turned cameras on “Men In War,” with Robert Ryan, Aldo Ray, Robert Keith, James Edwards and others in the cast. Sidney Harmon is the producer, and Anthony Mann is directing. “War Drums ” Starts Bel-Air Productions, whose product reaches theatres through UA, directed lens attention to “War Drums,” with Lex Barker, Joan Taylor, Ben Johnson, Jil Jarmyn and Larry Chance. Aubrey Schenck is executive producer, Howard Koch is producer, and Reginald LeBorg is director. Galahad Productions, shooting in New York, started “Brave Tomorrow,” for RKO release. Hiram Brown is producer, Mende Brown is executive producer, and John Newland is directing John Beal, Augusta Dabney, Sheppard Strudwick and the others in the cast. “Woman and the Hunter ” Producer-director George Breakston began work on “Woman and the Hunter” at Kanab, Utah, for Gross-Krasne and Kenya Productions. Ann Sheridan, David Farrar and Jan Merlin are top principals. Sam Katzman began shooting “Rumble on the Docks” for Columbia, with Fred F. Sears directing James Darren, Jerry Janger, Edgar Barrier and Michael Granger. Harry Joe Brown started filming a Randolph Scott vehicle, “The Captives,” for Columbia release, with Budd Boetticher directing. Producer Collier Young commenced filming “The Halliday Brand,” for U. A. distribution, with Joseph H. Lewis directing Joseph Cotten, Viveca Lindfors, Betsy Blair and Ward Bond. “The Counterfeit Plan” is an Amalgamated Productions number started in England, with Zachary Scott, Peggie Castle and Mervyn Johns in lead assignments. Richard Gordon and Charles F. Vetter, Jr., are the producers, and Montgomery Tully is directing. The two films completed during the week are the 20th-Fox “Between Heaven and Hell” and the U-I “Mister Cory,” both in CinemaScope and color. MOTION PICTURE HERALD, JULY 21, 1956 13